The present disclosure relates to a speed/torque increaser or enhancer that is suitable for use on motors and/or turbines, such as a wind turbine, for converting slow rotating, high torque motion into high rotation, low torque motion. The present disclosure can also be described as a planocentric gearbox.
Presently, gear boxes for wind turbine applications are complex multi-stage gearing arrangements which are not only bulky and heavy but quite difficult to service when installed on the wind turbine tower. For example, a presently available 600 kilowatt commercially available wind turbine gear box weighs about 8,600 pounds or approximately 77 watts per pound.
It has thus been desired to provide a way or means of reducing the complexity, size and weight of a gear box for substantially increasing the speed/torque of an output shaft and particularly for wind turbine generator applications.